Sony TV Head Vows No More Losses

After a decade of losses, the executive in charge of Sony’s television business says he’s sure this time the division will turn a profit.

Associated Press

We’ve heard many times Sony’s promise to rebuild its TV business, but the stakes are higher this time with the TV division split off into a subsidiary for the first time.

“I’m confident,” Masashi Imamura, the head of Sony’s new TV unit said Monday in a roundtable with the media. “I already see profitability.”

Imamura also confirmed that Sony will adopt Google’s new Android TV software for its Bravia TVs to be launched in the fiscal year starting April 2015. During its developers’ conference in June, Google said Sony and Sharp have signed up to integrate its platform into their TVs.

“There’s no way Sony can develop its own new operating system,” Imamura said.

Sony, which reported a loss of $1.3 billion in the fiscal year ended in March, has stepped up its restructuring efforts, selling off its personal-computer business and splitting off its TV division into a separate wholly-owned unit.

The new TV manufacturing and sales unit, called Sony Visual Products, launches on Tuesday with around 750 employees.

If the TV business doesn’t turn around, Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai has indicated that the company may explore an outside partnership, although he doesn’t see a complete withdrawal from TVs as “realistic” considering the hefty costs of pulling out.

By splitting off into a unit, Imamura says he’s given more authority and freedom to act flexibly and swiftly to changes in market conditions. Having learned from last year, he adds the company will likely be able to withstand fluctuations in emerging market currencies without falling into the red.

For the fiscal year ended in March, Sony’s TV business logged an operating loss of Y25.7 billion ($254 million), though that was smaller than a loss of Y69.6 billion a year earlier. The losses have gradually diminished over the past few years as Sony took steps such as focusing on higher-margin TV models to dissolving a joint venture with Samsung Electronics to allow it to buy less-costly panels on the open market.

For the current financial year, Sony is aiming for an ambitious 19% increase in TV sales to 16 million units.

While describing the target as “feasible,” Imamura said the priority this year is to turn a profit, indicating the business will swing into the black even if it fails to meet the shipment target.